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Terrorists Among Us

Oh, it’s not going to come any time soon, since the President has hitched his and his party’s wagon to the cause – which makes me deliriously happy, since it’s going to be a brick around the Democrats’ neck in 2014 (and I’ll be doing my best to tie it onto them).

And I don’t long for it because I’m in any way tired. The fight for liberty, like the fight against the baser sides of human nature that bring us everything from petty theft to the Holocaust, never ends, and never will as long as humans are human. Fatigue is human, but quitting is the luxury of the dilettante.

But since my first broadcast on the subject of gun control, way back in August of 1986 at KSTP, to this very day, I have to say that the fact gun-grabbers’ arguments never, ever change. I respond to the same crap today that I did in 1987. How many times can a guy answer, refute, debunk and stomp flat the same tropes, over and over and over again? No, violent crime does not drop when you ban guns. No, concealed carry doesn’t lead to shootings over fender-benders. No, the UK’s violent crime rate didn’t drop after they banned guns. No, the only thing I’m compensating for is the fact that our society is so full of the depraved and the stupid.

But every so often, something comes along that banishes the rhetorical lactic acid from my mental muscles. Something that focuses me on the real goal here – keeps my eyes on the lies, if not the prize. Something that is the rhetorical and intellectual equivalent of watching a group of brownshirts shuffling down the street smashing windows and painting “Judenrein” on burned-out storefronts, something that focuses the mind not only on the stakes of the battle, but on the depravity of one’s opponents. And suddenly, all the fatigue melts away, and all I want is to dig into the battle and not come up for air until I’ve got a mouthful of my opponent’s neck veins raw and dripping from my teeth.

Rhetorically speaking.

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Here is one such, by a Des Moines Register columnist named Donald Kaul, about whom I can say I’m sorry, Nick Coleman. I never knew how good we had it, in comparison, when you were writing – because in Des Moines and reading Mr. Kaul, but for the grace of the Father Almighty, might we all have gone.

Mr. Kaul is apparently a superannuated scold, sort of the Sid Hartmann of Des Moines punditry. And he’s got some curious takes on events:

The thing missing from the debate so far is anger — anger that we live in a society where something like the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre can happen and our main concern is not offending the NRA’s sensibilities.

Let me just take a brief moment for a tangent. Can we please, please have mainstream media figures refrain from ever, ever invoking “Network” again? Or at least until such time as they have given up on their affectation as self-referential, self-reverential putative “high priests of knowledge?” Until they stop comforting the comfortable and afflicting those who attack the narrative? Because the mainstream media does not, ever, ever upset the establishment. They are the establishment. And that anyone who works in the MSM still believes Paddy Chayefsky’s fantasy has applied to a single reporter at a single traditional institutional media outlet since before the Kennedy Administration is evidence not of purpose, but of delusion.

• Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It’s badly written, confusing and more trouble than it’s worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a “well-regulated militia.” We don’t make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn’t have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.

Mr. Kaul has reportedly suffered a heart attack in recent years. Regrettably, brain damage seems to have been involved. There are no “absolute rights”; everyone agrees on keeping guns out of the hands of the insane, the criminal, and the addled (no offense, Mr. Kaul). And it’s signally important that behind most of the legislation that’s actually accomplished that goal has been…

…the NRA.

And when Jefferson and Madison wrote the First Amendment, surely they can’t have imagined that the modern printing press (which they could also not imagine) would be used to inject Mr. Kaul’s twaddle into the public discussion.

Sorry, Mr. Kaul. We are all the militia. Even – heaven forefend – you.

Well, until you get convicted of a crime. And we may have to work on that, after reading what’s coming up:

• Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

The ACLU makes it possible for crazies to walk the streets instead of taking their meds back in the mental institutions, and the NRA makes possible for sane people to walk the streets instead of cowering in fear of the crazies. So who does Kaul blame for the problems in society? NRA, of course. Which means, he must be one of the crazies. But you already knew that.

“Bill would exempt SC-made guns from federal rules”
“The Firearms Freedom Act, pre-filed earlier this month by state Sen. Lee Bright, would mean that firearms, ammunition and gun accessories made in South Carolina aren’t subject to federal rules and oversight. Weapons made in South Carolina, the bill notes, must be stamped with the words “Made in South Carolina.”

Bright, R-Roebuck, says his bill would allow South Carolina manufacturers to skirt federal regulations because the materials would not cross state lines.”

You can be the farm this will pass with “broad bi-partisan support”…we got our Democrats well trained down here.

The best part of this legislation is that it uses the commerce clause against a federal mandate.

Well, swiftee, we have a fairly sizable gun manufacturer right here in Minnesota. DPMS, manufacturer of Panther Arms, is based in St. Cloud. It was started by a friend of mine that came from a working class, Richfield family. The company employs about 50 people and makes some of the finest shooting weapons.in the world. In fact, many state and federal agencies are equipped with them. He sold it to Freedom Group, which owns such revered brands as Remington, Marlin, Bushmaster and Harrington & Richardson.

Let’s see if our commie legislators have the stones to do the same thing as South Carolina. In fact, I think it was either Montana or Wyoming that has a similar law to prevent the feds from implementing their folly.

I highly encourage Soros et. al. to liquidate a sizeable portion of their fortunes in the purchase of Freedom Arms. Not only will the vacuum encourage entrepreneurs to create new, exciting firearms but it will leave lefty deep-pocket daddies with less cash to buy elections.

kel, I did see that and laughed. With the record gun (and related accessories) sales of late, that move would cost those morons much more money than they think. If I’m a stockholder, I get a big group of us together and demand that the board accept nothing less than 10 times current price.

swiftee, I agree. Based on what my friend told me though, the majority of his employees either were already Republicans or converted from libidiocy since working there. He used to have the Second Amendment framed in the lobby.